Conditions on Scottish mountains

[jimmurphy]

Is there a section on WalkHighlands where you can access up to date walking conditions on Scottish mountains, to help with planning? For instance, I know that there is snow on some mountain tops at this time. It would be handy if there was a section where you were able to access this information along with recommendations for gear, e.g, crampons required. Or if areas are particularly boggy, or streams were near impassable. You get the idea. if it doesn't exist here, are there any other sites which people would recommend? I have searched but have not found anything so far.

[Paul Webster]

Just a heads up on this. We all know that the amount of snow can change quite a bit over a day or two, that's obvious (and you can check in the forecast if new snow is forecast).

What's less obvious is that whether the snow is hard neve or not really DOES change completely overnight. What was soft snow can freeze iron hard - I've even had this happen during a days outing. So I don't think it's a good idea to provide info on this as it can change by the hour. If there's snow, you'll need the gear to deal with the possibility of it being hard. The fact that crampons weren't needed on one day due to soft snow doesn't mean they aren't essential the next day.

I do get the value of asking whether there is snow or not if you don't have the gear or skills and will only be doing the ascent if snow-free; that's obviously useful (as long as you factor in that new snow could arrive).

[jmarkb]

Paul is absolutely right about the variability of snow conditions, not only in time but also over short distances (e. g. whether it’s in the sun or in the shade) which makes any forecasting only very approximate at best. The most reliable sources of information are the SAIS avalanche forecasts and blogs https://www.sais.gov.uk/ which give a good idea of current conditions and how they may be affected over the coming day. However, forecasts can always be wrong and it is better to be over-equipped than under-equipped. While they only formally cover certain parts of the Highlands, one can often reasonably interpolate from the nearest ones.

Bogginess varies on much longer timescales: the main factors are the seasonal (usually worse in winter unless frozen) and rainfall amounts over the preceding weeks.

Stream levels rise and fall extremely quickly in response to rainfall: the amount of rain in the preceding 24-48 hours is by far the biggest influence, though in Spring, snowmelt can also be an important consideration. SEPA reports water levels for a number of sites across the country https://www2.sepa.org.uk/WaterLevels/ - upland sites are of more use than big rivers, and beware of sites downstream of dams.

[Giant Stoneater]

The other thing to point out is everybody has a different opinion on conditions some will say only a coating of snow as someone else might say it was icy, same with the conditions varying from day to day, you will just end up with a mixed bag of comments that serve no purpose.

[WalkWithWallace]

There's Facebook groups for that, but to be honest you can do your own research without relying on sketchy information given by someone who you don't know or what experience they have. Plus conditions change frequently.

You've got the Scottish Avalanche information service (SAIS), Mountain Weather Information Service (MWIS), webcams and current photos posted on social media to help gauge if you need the ironmongery or not.

[bar72]

As what earlier replies have said, I'll use BBC weather for a very general outlook, Met Office for a guesstimate then another I'm finding pretty reliable is mountain-forecast.com, pretty spot on with the forecast over this winter. Another good general prediction model is Yr.no. I pretty much assume carrying winter layers until at least June anyway as it can get changeable up there.